IV Chapter 18 Summary

[alice wellintown]

> Doc is then given an injection which brings him back to earth by a
> leering Puck, who tells him that Glen Charlock was the target of the
> hit at the Channel Estates massage parlor not Mickey. Puck tells him
> this because Doc seemed the only person who gave a shit about Glen.

Pynchon only seems to be tying things up here. Right? That "because
Larry cares" explaination for the narrative provided by both Puck and
other unreliable narrators here is padodic and problematic; the
suspense and tension and parody of both are blown up with the standard
"bad guy (Puck) tells the good guy (Doc) all before he kills him, but
good guy gets away with the story" and undermined by several modern to
postmodern narrative techniques here, including the obvious, Puck
lies. Not just about smoking.